1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a system for displaying information about super networks, sub-networks or subnets in a large network, such as an internal network within in an organization or an external network, such as the Internet, wherein the network has many hosts and devices, such as servers, printers, computers and the like and maintaining the subnets.
2. Description of the Related Art
A sub-network or subnet is defined within the Internet Protocol version Four (IPv4) specifications. Proper planning and administration of subnets has become critical for efficient design and implementation of IPv4 based data communications networks. All subnets in such a large network cannot be displayed simultaneously on an ordinary desktop computer monitor.
Internet protocol version four (IPv4) specifies an IP address that consists of thirty two (32) bits. Using these thirty two bits, a total of 4,294,967,295 (2 to the power of 32) unique IP addresses can be created. To simplify how an IP address is represented, these thirty two bits are divided into four sections of eight bits each called octets and if each octet of the IP address is converted from a binary number to a decimal number, the result is known as dotted decimal notation. An example of an IP address being converted from binary to dotted decimal is shown in FIG. 1. Except for FIGS. 3 and 4 dotted decimal notation will be used herein for ease of understanding.
As shown in FIG. 27, a decimal number, such as the number 589, is actually short-hand notation for a sum of numbers (500+80+9). As indicated, this can be rewritten as (5×100)+(8×10)+(9×1).
This can be further re-written as (5×10**2)+(8×10**1)+(9×10**0), wherein the symbols “**” indicate the operation of raising to a power, and the number following “**” is the exponent indicating the power.
Any number raised to the zero power is, by definition, unity, that is, one.
Thus, as indicated in FIG. 27, each position can be assigned an exponent.
In the binary number system, the same pattern applies, except that only two numbers are used, namely, 1 and 0. As indicated, the binary number 1101 represents the decimal number 13.
The right side of FIG. 27 indicates the binary numbers from 0000 to 1111 and their decimal equivalents.
FIG. 2 depicts a simple IP network. In an IP network each host device (computer, printer, server, etc) or packet router interface requires a unique address, such as the internet protocol address (IP address). This insures that data packet transmission can occur between hosts without conflict or errors. Data packets being transmitted between hosts within a single network do not require routing. Data packets being sent to an IP address outside the local network must be processed by a router and relayed to a destination network. For example, if data packets are being exchanged between a PC 192.68.0.2 (FIG. 2) and printer 192.68.0.1, no routing is required. In contrast, if data packets are being exchanged between hosts in different networks (e.g. 192.68.0.2 and 145.10.34.1) routing is required. Routers are used to connect two or more networks. Each interface on a router must also have an IP address.
FIG. 3 shows a first IP address and a last IP address of the IPv4 specification in both binary and dotted decimal form. The network notation for the IPv4 network that contains all IP addresses is shown in the third (right) column. The network notation consists of the first IP address of a network in dotted decimal form followed by a forward slash and then a sub-network (subnet) range. The subnet range tells how many bits of the IP address, beginning with the most significant bit, are to be used for a “Network ID.” The number of subnets can be determined by using the subnet range as the exponent of 2, and 2-to-the-power-of-zero equals one, by definition. In this example of FIG. 3, there is only one network and all bits in the IP address can be used as a host identification address (Host ID). The number of Host IDs supported by a network or subnet can be determined by subtracting the subnet range from 32 (the total number a bit in an IP address) and using that result as the exponent of 2. In the illustration, 2 to the power of (32−0)=4,294,967,295 Host IDs available.
The Internet is made up of multiple networks, requiring that the IPv4 address space be subdivided. This is done by increasing the subnet range and thereby increasing the number of bits in an IP address that can be used for a Network ID. FIG. 4A shows an example of how the IPv4 address range is divided into two subnets. The subnet range is one (1) which means that the most significant bit (i.e., the left-most bit) in the IP address is used for the Network ID. The dashed boxes in FIGS. 4A and 4B indicate the ranges, with the first and last address and all addresses therebetween being available for allocation as a host address. The Network ID for subnet 1 is zero (0) (i.e., the range indicated in the dashed box) and the Network ID for subnet 2 is one (1) (again indicated by the dashed box). The remaining bits in the IP address are available to be used as Host IDs. Each of these two subnets can contain up to 2,147,483,647 [e.g. 2 to the power of (32−1)] Host IDs.
FIG. 4B shows a further subdivision of the IPv4 address space. In this figure the subnet range has been increased to two. This means that the two most significant bits in the IP address are used to determine the Network ID. These two bits allow four unique combinations, 00, 01, 10, and 11. The remaining 30 bits in the IP address are available for Host ID within each of these subnets.
FIG. 5A depicts the hierarchical relationship between subnets. To simplify the diagram and illustration, the last three octets have been replaced with “X”. The Network ID of each subnet is indicated by a dashed box. As stated earlier, the number of bits used for the Network ID is known as the subnet range. The subnet range for row 1 of FIG. 5A is zero (0), for row 2 it is one (1), and for row 3 it is two (2). Again, notice that the most significant bits of the IP address are used for the Network ID. The number of those bits used is specified by the subnet range. Networks 00 and 01 are subnets of network 0 and networks 10 and 11 are subnets of network 1. A network is subdivided by adding one additional bit to the Network ID.
Thus, a hierarchy of subnets exists and this hierarchy of subnets can be represented using the network notation is shown in FIG. 5B. In FIG. 5B, the X's of FIG. 5A are given the specific values of zero. In general, each X of FIG. 5A represents a binary number ranging from 00000000 (decimal 0) to 11111111 (decimal 255).
The four entries in the bottom row of FIG. 5B, contain the prefixes 0, 64, 128, and 192, reading left-to-right in the figure. These are the dotted decimal values of the corresponding prefixes (i.e., the eight-bit binary numbers preceding the first decimal points) in the bottom row of FIG. 5A. For example, the binary number 01000000 in the second entry in the bottom row of FIG. 5A corresponds to the 64 in the second entry in the bottom row of FIG. 5B.
Networks 0.0.0.0/2 and 64.0.0.0/2 are considered children or subnets of network 0.0.0.0/1. Likewise networks 0.0.0.0/1 and 128.0.0.0/1 are subnets of network 0.0.0.0/0. This relationship between a subnet and its parent network is known in networking as “summarization.” The parent network is sometimes referred to as a “supernet.” Network 64.0.0.0/2 summarizes to 0.0.0.0/1 and network 0.0.0.0/1 summarizes to 0.0.0.0/0. This hierarchical relationship between networks is important in planning, implementing and administering large data communication system composed of many subnets.
Unfortunately, given the vast number of IP addresses, maintaining, visualizing, tracking, allocating, reserving and monitoring such addresses was very difficult and time consuming. Also, because of the size of the network, not all subnets could be displayed simultaneously or in any easy-to-read manner.
There is, therefore, a need to provide a system and method that overcomes one or more of the problems of the past.